'Trini' ISIS fighter captured by Syrian forces

ISIS fighter Zaid Abed al-Hamid, a US citizen, is believed to originally be from Trinidad.

A US man, originally from Trinidad, is one of two men captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria, fighting for militant group, the Islamic State.

According to a report from the BBC, which was also carried in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Independent UK, Zaid Abed al-Hamid was among a group of people caught planning a terrorist attack on fleeing Syrian civilians.

He was arrested along with two Pakistanis and one Irishman, suspected fighters involved in an operation to clear a region of northern Syria of remaining IS fighters.

Extremism researchers, according to the article, say Hamid may originally be from Trinidad.

Author Simon Cottee, who is writing a book about Trinidadian IS fighters, told the New York Times that Hamid’s name appears on a database of 130 men from Trinidad who are believed to have joined the group.

A 2015 video from the Islamic State features a man believed to be Hamid discussing his conversion to Islam and the difficulties he experienced in practising his faith in Trinidad.

"Even though I had a very comfortable life in Trinidad, there was something that's telling me, you know, that I don't belong in this place," he says in the propaganda video.

Another American man, Warren Christopher Clark, was also captured by the SDF during fighting.

Reports indicate that he taught English as a Second Language as a substitute teacher at the Fort Bend Independent School District during the period January 2009 to November 2011.

Get the latest local and international news straight to your mobile phone for free: